New Delhi, Aug 6 - The delayed and deficient monsoon this year has not only hit India's farm output but also complicated the recovery of its merchandise exports that have seen nine straight months of decline, global rating agency Moody's has said.

The agency's intelligence arm Moody's Economy.com has also warned that the fall in the country's food output may also accelerate the need for import even as the outgo of foreign exchange was expected to rise on account of hardening crude prices.

'The monsoon problem appears to be more severe than policymakers had anticipated,' Sherman Chan, an economist with Moody's Economy.com, said.

'Amid lower farm output, the government has curbed exports of various food commodities such as wheat. The contraction in agricultural exports is expected to remain in double-digit territory in coming months,' Chan said.

The consultancy said it would take time for the export sector to return to the pre-crisis growth rate.

'Global demand is expected to gradually pick up, meaning that external orders may not return to the pre-crisis levels at least until mid-2010. Delayed and insufficient monsoon rains have complicated the recovery.'

On the other side, India's imports are likely to rise in coming months.